AFT ACADEMICS

“Even though it can feel like our time at any given institution is pretty limited, the problems that graduate students are facing are not unrelated to the problems facing adjuncts, or even that problems that a lot of tenured faculty members are up against in their own institutions. Those institutions are deeply embedded in the structure of higher education, and I think the first step in addressing the neoliberalization of higher education is doing something at the graduate student level.”

– Anna Zalokostas, NUGW Member

In the fall of 2018, the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees won our union by a landslide through a non-NLRB​ election. This non-NLRB election agreement was the first of its kind between a private university and a graduate union in the United States. It guaranteed that, upon winning our election, the administration would come to the table and bargain with us on the issues that matter to graduate workers at Georgetown, including wages, health care, family leave policy, fee and tuition waivers, and grievance procedures.

“As the Trump NLRB looks for ways to roll back our rights as workers, we need to organize for a different future. When grad workers come together, we can secure better working conditions and a more democratic university.”

Trish Kahle, GSU Member

“The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation has represented graduate employees at the University of Oregon for over 40 years. In that time, we’ve achieved one of the best health insurance programs in the nation for graduate workers, significant yearly salary increases, and a number of gains for our most vulnerable members including gender-neutral restroom standards, protections for international graduate workers, and lactation spaces and childcare subsidies for parents.

Without a union, the university could treat us however they wanted and you can be sure they wouldn’t give us these things out of the kindness of their hearts. It takes graduate workers coming together to fight for a better life and working conditions, and the best way to do that is through a union!”

– Mike Magee, GTFF President